


would you come with me?

by christchex



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Hopeful Ending, Light Angst, M/M, not s2 finale speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:28:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24405799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/christchex/pseuds/christchex
Summary: If I left Roswell and I asked you to come with me, would you?A few times the question was asked and one time it wasn't hypothetical.
Relationships: Michael Guerin/Alex Manes
Comments: 31
Kudos: 117





	would you come with me?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AndreaLyn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndreaLyn/gifts).



> as the tag says "not s2 finale speculation" more just I'd like that question to come full circle.
> 
> Also, I wrote the first half of this after the NYCC preview where we first heard the dialogue. This is why that scene isn't actually written. And then I felt like we'd already seen it, so we don't have to rehash it.
> 
> Enjoy.

“If I left Roswell and I asked you to come with me, would you?”

Alex asked, wrapped up in Michael’s arms. The bed of Michael’s truck was cushioned by blankets and a sleep bag. It was comfortable enough, with Michael’s arms around Alex and the night sky above them. It was warm, early July air still comfortable even so long after sunset. Alex played with the edges of Michael’s ace bandage as he tried to avoid contact with his still healing fingers.

Alex felt more than he saw Michael move underneath him, just slight shifts of his body until Alex was fully on top of him and Michael can press a soft kiss to his hair.

“And where would we go?” Michael whispered before he gave Alex’s ear a light nip.

Alex squirmed until he could turn and face Michael.

“Anyway,” he said with a smile. “Anywhere at all! We could go to L.A. or Hawaii.”

“We’re dreaming big, are we,” Michael’s sarcastic response was tempered by his delighted grin.

“I wouldn’t care where we were,” Alex said, “as long as you were with me and we weren’t here.”

Michael only kissed Alex in response. Alex couldn’t help but think that Michael never said yes.

-

Weeks later Alex asked again.

“If I left Roswell and I asked you to come with me, would you?”

This time the question wasn’t a joke. Alex’s eyes were serious, brows furrowed and Michael could easily see the tears pooling at the corners of Alex’s eyes.

“What am I supposed to do Alex? Am I supposed to follow you to basic? Live in whatever town is closest to your base? Never see you because we can’t be together, not really, not while you’re in uniform.”

Alex bit his lip and raised his head, in an attempt to stop the tears from falling. Michael could feel the tears in his own eyes. He could feel the pain in his worsen and everything tightened as reality sunk in. Alex was leaving and Michael couldn’t go with him.

“It would be hard, but we’d make it work. I know we would!” Alex brought his gaze back to Michael. “I could request to be in Albuquerque! You could start at UNM and then we could look into schools and how to transfer! We could figure it out, please. Please.”

Michael left the tears fall as he looked at Alex, determined and terrified.

“I’m going Guerin. I’m signed up and I can’t back out now.”

Alex’s lips were sealed tight, his jaw tight and determined.

Michael knew it could only end one way. He couldn’t leave Isobel, not now. He couldn’t follow a boy from military base to military base. He had to stay here, protect Isobel and protect their secret.

“No.”

-

“If I left Roswell and I asked you to come with me, would you?”

“That would be desertion Guerin,” Alex replied to Michael’s slurred plea. “I deploy in a few days. I am leaving Roswell and you aren’t coming with me.”

It was late and the parking lot of The Wild Pony was mostly empty, save for Alex’s rental, Michael’s truck, and the bartender’s jeep. Secretly, Alex was thrilled that Maria wasn’t around to see this confrontation, not when she didn’t know the history behind it, not when she’d just think Guerin was drunkenly harassing him instead of drunkenly begging. For what, Alex wasn’t sure. Michael had made himself perfectly clear over two years ago when Alex asked him the exact same thing.

Michael stumbled closer to Alex, his balance off when he tried to lean against Alex’s car. Alex caught him and held on while Michael tried to catch himself.

“We can run away,” Michael slurs as he nuzzles into Alex’s side. “Go to Hawaii, you said we could go there.”

“I remember you not saying that you would. I remember you saying no.”

Michael pushed his face further into Alex’s neck. Alex lost his balance and they crashed into the side of Alex’s rental car.

“You ran away first. Ran away to the Air Force. Ran away from me.”

Alex looked down at the mess of curls between his neck and his shoulder. He sighed as he lifted a hand and started comb his fingers through Michael’s hair.

“I asked you to come with me,” Alex said, quietly. “You’re the one who hid instead of saying goodbye to me. You’re the one who pushed me away.”

Alex didn’t think Michael could hear him, not with the way his breath shuddered and the tears Alex could feel on his neck.

“You left me,” Michael whispered, over and over as Alex held him.

Finally the tears stopped and Michael pulled away. He refused to meet Alex’s eyes.

“Where are you staying?” Alex asked. “I can take you home.”

“It’s ok,” Michael said as he slowly backed away. “I’ll crash in my truck tonight. I’m used to it.” He gave Alex a pained smile. “Good night Alex.”

-

Michael didn’t know how he ended up here, again, with tears in his eyes and Alex Manes in front of him in fatigues and glowing in the moonlight, a question on his lips.

“If I left Roswell and I asked you to come with me, would you?”

“No.”

-

_If I left Roswell and I asked you to come with me, would you?_

It had been months since Alex last asked him, outside his rented house within the Roswell city limits, a place that only became familiar when they were no longer together. He had stood on the patio, had thrust the guitar back into Alex’s hands, had told him they weren’t _good_ for each other and all Michael wanted was to be good for someone.

The last few days of frantic searching hadn’t changed his mind. No, Alex going missing after their last fight, a fight a long time coming truth be told, hadn’t changed his mind at all. It was the months before that, the months of him asking Alex to show up and Alex being there, Alex always being there whether Michael wanted him there or not. Or really, whether Michael wanted to admit that he wanted him there. It wasn’t Alex going missing that made him realize they could be good for each other, but it was what made Michael realize there was nothing in the world he wanted more than Alex Manes by his side, no matter what manner that was. He’d love Alex Manes for the rest of his life.

It was what made his strike the deal with Deep Sky in the first place. Working on a project for them seemed like a small enough price to pay to get Alex back. Honestly, there wasn’t much he wouldn’t do to get Alex back.

Now they were standing on the fairgrounds, the fire from an explosion still crackled in the background as the first responders stormed the group and the civilians huddled far in the distance. They were the only ones there, just Michael and Alex. And Forrest, a few feet behind Alex waiting, expecting.

Alex stood before him, face still a little bruised and his expression showed his indecision.

“You made a deal,” Forrest reminded them. Michael looked from Alex to Forrest. His face wasn’t the open, amiable man he had seen at the library and The Crashdown the week before. His face was hard, set in determination. His eyes were fixed to the back of Alex’s head. “You made a deal. We’ll leave him alone and you come with us.”

“You can’t do that!” Michael yelled, uncaring of the firefighters in the distance and the paramedics who were making their way over to the small group. “You said you’d let him go if I helped you. I did. So let him go.”

“And we let him go,” Forrest agreed. “This is a different deal. “Alex comes with us willingly, works for us willingly, and we leave you alone for good. No more targeting you. We leave Roswell and you go on with your life.”

_I protected you so far, that’s not changing._

“Don’t do this Alex,” Michael said, eyes falling back to Alex. Alex with tears in his eyes. Alex with his sad smiles. Alex with his past tense. Michael with his present feelings.

_I promise I’ll keep you safe._

“I promised Michael.” Alex’s voice was a whisper, barely heard of the panic of the public and the shouts of the firefighters. “I promised to keep you safe.”

“You promised you’d be here,” Michael whispered back. He didn’t try to hide his tears as he closed the distance between himself and Alex. He always seemed to be crying around Alex. Once, he would have thought that was a bad thing, that it meant that Alex was the reason he was crying. Like some sort of survivor bias Michael assumed that the feelings were what ruined him rather than the result of vulnerability, a thing that injured him instead of just killing him outright. He knew better now- he cries around Alex because he _can_ , because whatever macho cowboy swagger he once needed to steel himself in Alex’s presence was unnecessary and unwelcome.

“I don’t want you to go,” Michael whispered, low and only for the two of them. “I just got you back. I can’t do it again.” He closed his eyes, closed the one-step distance between them. He leaned his head forward. Alex met him, gently pressing their foreheads together. “I can’t do it Alex. I can’t take you leaving again, even if it’s for me, to protect me.”

“What are you saying Michael?” Michael could feel his eyelashes flutter against his cheek.

“Ask me again Alex.” He nuzzled his forehead against Alex’s, slowly moving so that he pressed against Alex’s temple, right next to his ear. “Ask me again, but no hypotheticals this time. No ‘if’s or ‘would-you’s. Ask me. Just ask.”

Alex moved. He pulled back to see Michael’s face, the tears that still streaked down his cheeks and the hope in his eyes.

“Michael,” Alex said, voice calm for all that his hands trembled. “I’m leaving Roswell and I don’t know when I’ll be back.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He opened his eyes. They were clear, the sadness that had tinted them for years gone. “Will you come with me?”

Michael smiled. “Yes.”

“Why now?”

Michael pressed a light kiss to Alex’s temple.

“You asked.”


End file.
